Proton beam therapy is as safe as conventional radiotherapy for the treatment of childhood brain cancer, according to a new study.
Findings from the USA-based study also suggest that proton radiotherapy may not be as toxic to the rest of a child’s body as conventional treatment.
Writing in The Lancet, Dr Torunn Yock, who led the study at Massachusetts General Hospital, Proton Center, Boston, MA, said patient outcomes suggested that the use of the treatment could be used as an alternative to photon-based treatments.
In this study, 59 patients aged 3 to 21 were enrolled between 2003 and 2009, of whom 55 had had the tumour partially or completely removed through surgery.
All patients received chemotherapy as well as the highly targeted proton beam therapy and they were followed up for an average of seven years.
Three years after treatment, progression-free survival was 83% and at five years, progression-free survival was 80%.
The team also recorded that at three years after treatment, 12% of patients had serious hearing loss, which increased to 16% at five years.
Patients also displayed problems with processing speed and verbal comprehension, although perceptual reasoning and working memory were not significantly affected.
Fifty-five per cent had problems with the neuroendocrine system after five years. The study found no cardiac, pulmonary, or gastrointestinal toxic effects, which are common in patients treated with photon radiotherapy.
The authors say: “Our findings suggest that proton radiotherapy seems to result in an acceptable degree of toxicity and had similar survival outcomes to those achieved with photon-based radiotherapy. Although there remain some effects of treatment on hearing, endocrine, and neurocognitive outcomes—particularly in younger patients—other late effects common in photon-treated patients, such as cardiac, pulmonary, and gastrointestinal toxic effects, were absent.”
Yock T, Yeap B, MacDonald S. Long-term toxic effects of proton radiotherapy for paediatric medulloblastoma: a phase 2 single-arm study. Lancet Oncol. 29 January, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00167-9
Leave a Reply